The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Hydrangea plant, botanically known as Hydrangea macrophylla, commercially referred to as a mophead-type Hydrangea and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Hortmabluebel’.
The new Hydrangea plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Boskoop, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program was to create new Hydrangea plants with large inflorescences with numerous sterile flowers that can be easily “blued” and good postproduction longevity.
The new Hydrangea plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in 2007 in Boskoop, The Netherlands, of Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Love You Kiss’, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Renate Steiniger’, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Hydrangea plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in Boskoop, The Netherlands in 2011.
Asexual reproduction of the new Hydrangea plant by vegetative terminal cuttings in a controlled environment in Boskoop, The Netherlands has shown that the unique features of this new Hydrangea plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.